Peru 2018: Lima, Cusco, Aguas Calientes

OverviewI'll recap a couple days per post below, but I wanted to get some top-of-my-head thoughts down first.#1: Peru is one heck of a dining destination. Gaston Acurio brought it to light, and I'd say their cooking can delight me in ways that only Thai has done. It's got bright fresh flavors, lots of fat and umami, and the cooks seem, almost without exception, to really give a damn. Even the dump of a Chifa (Chinese) place we walked into made Cantonese food better than any place here outside of Chinatown.

It's also a relative bargain: the most expensive meal we had was about S/400 (S/ is the symbol for Peruvian Soles), or around $130 for two, with drinks. If you're willing to eat the Tourist Menus in places like Cusco and Aguas Calientes (the gateway town to Machu Picchu), it's really cheap: S/15 (under $5) can get you a two-course meal with a Pisco sour or lemonade -- we never did, opting to go a couple levels higher and having great food for about our regular-dining-out budget on most days.

There are some downsides, though: Lima is not set up for tourism like most European capitol cities: no major transportation network (although it's estimated 1/7 of all cars are licensed or unlicensed taxis) -- museums, high street shopping, etc., may be all over the place, although Miraflores district has a lot of shopping and dining. Clean water is an issue, although the higher-end restaurants say their fresh produce and iced beverages are safe (we didn't have any problems). Many restaurants are closed, or only open for lunch, on Sundays -- Lunch is a big deal in Lima, but we don't tend to do lunch when we travel: we usually fill up on breakfast at hotels, snack between tourist attractions, then have a big dinner. There are some top-rated restaurants that are only open at lunch time.

But back to the food: wow. With the Chinese influence (called Chifa), Japanese influence (Nikkei), fresh seafood and tropical produce, great pork, exotic animals to try, it deserves its reputation. There's spicy when you need it (often in the cebiche, but rocoto chiles are nothing to sneeze at and aji amarillo is a wonderful warmth), but you're not likely to be knocked on your butt from the heat. I was extremely skeptical when I saw that three of the World's 50 Best Restaurants were in Lima, figuring there's some observation error, but daaaaaaaaaaaam.

There were a few things I missed:

Cuy - it was always expensive, and usually not as interesting-sounding as other items on the menu -- most places just roast it (although I did see a cuy canneloni at one restaurant)

Chicha - I'm not much of a drinker to begin with, and as exhausted as the altitude made me, I had very little booze on the areas outside of Lima, usually just a sip of Sue's wine (There are some very, very good Peruvian wines, many with Tannat grape)

Coca - Just Say No. Our company is switching to outsourced HR, you never know when drug testing could happen. Muña is another herb which is supposed to help with breathing at altitude, it's pleasantly minty as a tea.

Choclo y Queso - Choclo, the large-kernel corn, is used all over the place, especially stews, and ground into cornmeal, also roasted (corn nuts) and popped, but it was suggested that this might not be the safest of things to eat from the street vendors. I kept hoping to find it on a menu.

One interesting note: Agave is grown, mainly as erosion control along roads. The guide we hired for a couple days (run by the sister and brother-in-law of someone Sue works with, highly recommended) said they don't know what to do with it.

More to come soon.

What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

Our first full day in Lima involved learning the public transportation system (lesson: avoid! It's a dedicated bus lane without enough buses running, very hot and crowded), wandering around the Mercado Central (when Sue uploads her photos, I'll grab a couple from there, I didn't get any on my phone) and Chinatown. We picked up some cheese and pecans to snack on. The pecans were enormous, and shelled whole (you have to break apart the halves and remove the "cardboard" between them),

The Chifa restaurant that had been recommended on a list Sue'd found was long gone, so we settled for the next place we saw, we were hungry. I think this is the place:

It was a dump, with a booth selling direct-to-street some dim sum and roast pork, and shabbily-built booths. But the food was solid. S/12 got us a half-dozen siu mai. They came two-to-a-skewer, and weren't very hot, but they were tasty. Another S/14 (about $4.50) for a Pollo con something-or-other which turned out to be broccoli and scallions was really very good, came with a decent wonton soup and fried rice. Great wok hay, deep soy flavor and a decent amount of ginger. If it was in the Chicago burbs, it'd have to clean up, but I'd be there regularly.

For dinner I'd sent an email reservation request to Rafael, which had come highly recommended and was only a few blocks from our hotel. We hadn't gotten a response back, so we thought we'd just walk over (finding a cool candy shop selling caramel-nougaty things called chocotejas we saw all over, and an Amazonian craft shop where we bought a textile that'll become a wall hanging), and it was closed for February for remodeling. But just across the street was Maido, on the 50 Best Restaurants list. They didn't have any openings, but they had several reservations that hadn't shown yet -- if we were willing to wait 15 minutes we might get a table. Another person came in and was put in the same queue, and when time was up for the late arrival we were asked if we'd be willing to sit together at a 4-top. He turned out to be a very interesting Swiss guy who does marketing videos, with Ugandan/Ukrainian parents, we had a great evening talking politics, children, and travel.

(to be continued)

What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

Amuse of beef heart, but for the life of me, I've forgotten what the other components are, except the bottom was crisp, and creamy in between. Probably fried potato with huacaina sauce?

Rocotto Relleno (stuffed pepper). Not as spicy as other versions we've had, with a cheesy sauce, and wonderful delicate flavor.

"Sansei" Cebiche with leche de tigre, silverside, scallop and a couple other elements. The leche de tigre was brought out as a bowl of liquid nitrogen-frozen powder, which liquified when stirred into the fish (didn't get a chance to snap the original composed dish)

Sundays are tough in Lima: A lot of restaurants are closed, or open at lunch but not dinner. There was a restaurant recommended on a pier we were going to try, but alas, not on Sunday, and we were flying to Cusco the next day. The hotel concierge recommended Cala ("Creek"), also on the shore. Regrettably, it was cloudy, we didn't get much of a sunset, but the shore was beautiful

There was an amuse we forgot to photograph - a bit of fried fish with huacaina sauce.

Something crispy-fried sounded good to start (we didn't expect an amuse), so we went with the calamari which came with a tartar sauce and a olive oil sauce with just an hint of cinnamon that gave the impression of five-spice. The slivers of red onion and chile were a nice accompaniment.

"Southern Tuna" with yellow chile, yucca, and oca. The server recommended it "medium," should have gone for "rare". Also pictured, a pisco sour with a heck of a whallop.

The next day we flew LCPeru from Lima to Cusco. Warning: I don't know if all in-country airlines are like this, but anyone over about 5'3" would find the seat pitch unacceptable. I got an exit row on the way back, but this was a miserable flight.

Cusco, at 11,000 feet, really knocked me out (Sue, less so). I felt like anything alcoholic would just knock me out, and Sue would have to carry me the three blocks straight up to our hotel. Cicciolina, a block off the Plaza de Armas, was a wonderful Italian-inspired restaurant.

Bread with tomato sauce and some really, really good olives.

Soup sounded like a good idea as a restorative. We split starters including consomme with grilled beef, potato, corn, cilantro and pepper leaf,

The Osso Bucco was described as being in a dark beer sauce, with pumpkin ravioli, serrano cheese, mint and toasted pecans. A huge serving, with a nice hunk of marrow. That sauce was fantastic: sweet with the right amount of savory and acid and umami.

Alpaca tenderloin with a four-pepper sauce ("au poive", not chiles) with yucca "souffle" and roasted tomatoes. Alpaca is very lean (extremely low in cholesterol apparently), and not that tender, rather chewy. A very good dish, but the brochette I had later in the week was better.

We paid the (rather expensive) bus to get up to Machu Picchu, we'd thought that there were trails we could take without going into the park, but we were wrong, and it was raining, so we had a hot drink (tea and cocoa) in the Belmond Sanctuary Hotel, the drinks were expensive but they brought out fried corn and plaintain.As we were leaving, they were setting up for a beautiful high tea, I didn't see the cost.

From Google reviews and others, we chose a place called Chullpi (the Ls are pronounced, it's Quechua, not Spanish), as it sounded like it had interesting dishes, and we were right. They opened a little later than other places -- they were just opening when we found them.

Here's great evidence of how seriously Peruvians run their restaurants: This is a little place, relatively casual, the whole meal with wine ran us the equivalent of $55 or so, and we got an amuse that looks like this:Alpaca tartare over a piece of fried cheese. Awesome

We spent the next day at Macchu Picchhu (you can see my whole album on Flickr). Bring lots of water and energetic snacks -- there's no vending inside the park, and pack all your trash out (theoretically water bottles, walking sticks, etc. are all banned, but there's no enforcement).When we got back, we decided we'd try something a little less Peruvian. There are a lot of places with woodburning pizza ovens in Aguas Calientes, Incontri del Pueblo Viejo claimed to be real Neapolitan, and even at the high altitude, did not disappoint. The place had a beautiful open wood fire pit in the center of the restaurant, and a big

These were labeled as quinoa "meatballs" although I'm pretty sure there was no meat, more of a dumpling. Soft, delicate, with a delicious sauce.

This pizza had a sauce of porcini mushrooms, with prosciutto and truffle oil. Nice crispness to the crust, very savory. I asked for crushed peppers, and was given a rocotto chile sauce. Very tasty, but not what I expected for a pizza condiment.

Back to Cusco and its lack of oxygen (about 3000 feet higher than Aguas Calientes), but plenty of rain. We visited a few touristy places around the Plaza de Armas, and checked out menus. Tunupa had one of the more interesting-sounding menus, but proved to be the only disappointment of the week. Nothing terrible, but nothing great; service was spotty, and as we're being served, they're setting up this lush buffet that they didn't even bother telling us about, featuring everything from sushi rolls to Peruvian standards, a half-dozen potato dishes, salads, stews, etc. etc.

It did have a nice view of the plaza, for a rainy evening:

Like the first night in Cusco, the altitude drew us to soup. Mine was a creole soup, with beef, angel hair, and a poached egg; Sue had a carrot soup with ginger and honey. These were pretty good, better than the entrees.

I had the "trout medallions" which came with a quinoa risotto. The menu described it as filets, and while boneless, it was more of a cross-section. Unfortunately overcooked. The risotto was pretty good, but mostly tasted of parmesan.

Sue had the grilled pork ribs, which were mistranslated -- it should have been chops. Regrettably, these were also overcooked and dry.

It's been most of a month, about time I wrap up this report.Our last full day in Cusco, we took a tour run by the brother-in-law of one of Sue's co-workers. I highly recommend https://www.banderitascusco.com/ -- Silverio is very knowledgeable, and we had a lot of fun, at the Maras salt pools and Moray agricultural experimental station, and a village with traditional weavers.

The salt pools get rather muddy in the rainy season, but it's still awfully cool. This has supposedly been "mined" for about 2000 years. We picked up some pink "fleur de sel"-style salt and some very tasty smoked salt, plus some fried beans and corn for snacking.

The Moray pits (or as I like to call them, the Vegan Sarlac) are where the Incas brought earth from across the empire and created microclimates to test various breeds of potatoes and corn:

That evening we ate at Pachupapa in the San Blas artisan district not far from the Cusco Plaza de Armas (but it's uphill, the altitude is still killing me here). It started raining as we got there, so we passed on sitting in the courtyard near the ovens, where they make these tiny rolls not much bigger than my thumb, seem to be the standard all over Cusco, it may be an altitude thing? They were served with a spicy tomato sauce, and a green sauce that reminded me a lot of Indian cilantro chutney.

(Sue's wine in the background is another Tannat blend)

For a starter, we had the potatoes (which we realized we hadn't eaten many of in the land they came from), which were served cold, with huacaina (yellow) and ocopa (green, very similar to the bread spread), sliced boiled egg and olives.

Sue had one of the national dishes, Aji de Gallina, succulent chicken in a yellow chile sauce.

I had the Pachupapa -- their combo platter: Alpaca brochette (nicely marinated, very tender and tasty), tamal with aji chile, stuffed rocoto chile and potatoes.

The following day, we did a little more touring of Incan sites near Cusco. When we got to the airport, they asked if we wanted to leave earlier -- now -- and we got to Lima much earlier than expected. We were able to move our dinner reservation up an hour and still wander around the Miraflores neighborhood for a couple hours.

A nearby park had some sort of event going on (some folk dancing, some flea market stuff, some artists), and we got an order of what I thought were onion rings from a cart, but turned out to be something more like a ring-shaped sweet-potato fritter called "picarones." I didn't get a picture, because they were dripping with sticky syrup and we were dodging yellowjackets.

Prior to dinner, we came across a small mall, bought some chocolates at one store, and wandered through a Target-like store called Wong (mostly groceries, a fair amount of housewares, some furniture and electronics), where we bought some hot sauces, and some aji pepper paste.WongBalta Shopping, Malecón Balta 626+51 990 280 132http://www.wong.pe

Dinner was at Panchita, billed as Criolla (creole) cuisine. We'd seen a note that the portions here are huge, and the prices were not unreasonable, and the appetizers all sounded so interesting, we ordered four appetizers, but probably could have been satiated on two (especially if one was the tamales):

Cassava fries with five sauces: a salsa-like one, aji, mustard, cilantro and an aoili. This should have been our warning about portion sizes, those planks of cassava are huge.[url=https://flic.kr/p/24Hp8nB]

But then we were fooled by a couple dainty empanadas, filled with stir-fried beef

The Peruvian wings were tasty, but I'd have liked a little more heat. The onions added a nice contrast, but hard to eat because they don't stick to the wings

And five tamales, each one about the size of Sue's fist. Two cilantro (they were out of the artichoke), corn with aji (the best of the bunch and we still didn't finish it), creole maize filled with pork, and the Marthita made with quinoa. I need to figure out how to make the aji, which did not have any meat in it, but fresh and ground corn, and a great, warm, chile and garlic flavor.

I definitely want to try this restaurant again, hopefully with a bunch of people, and maybe get past the first page of the menu to the grilled, fried, and stewed items.